Curated OER
Picture Prompt: Penguins and Christmas Tree
What happens when penguins put up a Christmas tree? Only your students know for sure, since they're the ones writing the story! A picture of penguins around a Christmas tree is sure to inspire even your most reluctant writers to begin,...
Curated OER
Picture Prompt: Valentine Mice
Students write the story after seeing the picture of one mouse giving a Valentine to another mouse. They provide the title, as well as the beginning, middle, and end of the story. A text box allows teachers to type in preferred words,...
Santa Ana Unified School District
The Power of Point of View
Sometimes a whole story can change based on the perspective of the person telling it. Practice identifying and analyzing point of view in various reading passages and writing assignments with a language arts packet, complete with Common...
Novelinks
The Dark Is Rising: Biopoem
How well do your learners really know the characters in Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising? A biopoem activity prompts readers to investigate the characters and their traits. Line by line, writers add the characters' relatives,...
Curated OER
Book Swap
Learners explore the publishing roles of author and illustrator. Stories are written and the illustration done by other students. Answers to several questions act as a motivating force for the creation of the stories.
Curated OER
The World Around Me
Combining visual and language arts, here is a resource that prompts middle schoolers to write stories based on pictures of their surroundings. They use digital cameras to take pictures of favorite areas in the school. Next, they choose...
Curated OER
Printable Story Starter: The Arrival
A creative writing prompt about the arrival of a boat after a long journey helps students to continue the story by providing the two opening sentences. Students compose the middle and ending of the story. This prompt could be used in the...
Curated OER
Printable Story Starter: Snow Leopard
This writing prompt about a hungry snow leopard provides students with the beginning of a story, including characters, a setting, and a conflict that the student can complete. The student can then compose an original middle and end of...
Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment
Safety and Managing Risk
Teenagers love to take risks to test their personal boundaries, but many risks are too dangerous to try. The set of exercises in this packet teach your class about the ways they can stay safe and protect themselves while still having fun.
National Park Service
Lesson 2: Hope
There's hope in music. Pupils discover what gave enslaved people hope by examining lyrics and music during their time of bondage. A series of prompts helps individuals investigate songs of enslaved people. The cumulative assignment...
Novelinks
The Devil’s Arithmetic: Anticipation Guide
Do you need to learn about someone's past before you can understand that person's behavior? Use an anticipation guide to think about the literary themes of Jane Yolen's The Devil's Arithmetic before you begin the novel.
National Park Service
Lesson 4: Escape
Some enslaved people decided to run for their liberation. Using lyrics of songs they sang, young historians look at these anthems of freedom. An assessment asks them to write the story of escape from the perspective of an enslaved person.
Curated OER
Responding to Literature: James and the Giant Peach
Fifth grade reader/writers create an alternate ending to an episode in Roald Dahl's James and the Giant Peach in which our protagonist "loses" the chance to magically solve all his problems. Prompts students not only to write creatively...
Lesson Locker
Z for Zachariah: Questions for Study on Chapters 1 - 10
An efficient study guide for the first 10 chapters of Z for Zachariah that covers basic recall questions concerning the characters and the plot. It also includes short writing prompts for selected chapters that extend into the themes,...
Center for History Education
To What Extent Were Women's Contributions to World War II Industries Valued?
Women rose to the challenge when the nation's war effort called them—but were sent home when the GIs came back from World War II. Young historians consider whether the United States valued women's contributions during the war using a...
National Endowment for the Humanities
John Steinbeck’s "The Grapes of Wrath": The Inner Chapters
Here’s a must-have resource for anyone using The Grapes of Wrath. Everything from guiding questions to background information, from photographs to documentary films, from activities to assessments is included in a richly detailed packet...
Starfall
My Toy
In this language arts worksheet, students write about a personal story of sharing toys. They recall the story and then draw an illustration of it.
Curated OER
Picture Prompt: Skunk
In this writing worksheet, students examine a picture prompt showing a skunk and some garden friends. Students write a story about the picture.
Curated OER
Narrative Writing
Second graders select and read a variety of stories and discuss what happened in the story that made the day so special. Using a graphic organizer, 2nd graders brainstorm ideas about their best day at school. They compose a story...
National Constitution Center
Born in the U.S.A: Music as Political Protest
Though often used in shows of patriotism, Bruce Springsteen's 1985 song "Born in the U.S.A." is critical of America's role in the Vietnam war and its treatment of American veterans. High schoolers analyze the song's lyrics in an activity...
Curated OER
Sequencing
Are you looking for a way to teach sequence of events in your narrative writing unit? Bring this lesson to your middle school class, as it prompts young writers to create a narrative sequence map of events that have happened at school...
Curated OER
Picture Prompt: Kids by the Creek
Students finish the story in this picture prompt, which shows two kids fishing by a creek. The prompt lends well to creative writing, as well as autobiographical writing. A word box allows teachers to type words that they want students...
Curated OER
Picture Prompt: St. Patrick's Day Kids
A picture of two leprechauns with a pot of gold prompts students to finish the story. Students provide the title of the story, as well as the beginning, middle, and end. The prompt includes a text box for teachers to type in preferred...
Curated OER
Picture Prompts: Arctic Hares
Prompted by a picture of two white arctic hares, students complete the story based on their own creative ideas. This writing template could couple with a winter unit, an animal unit, or even as simple writing practice. A text box allows...